How does it feel to lose your job as starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers?

"It sucks. I don’t know what else to say," Alex Smith told reporters Thursday, his first public comments since head coach Jim Harbaugh replaced him with Colin Kaepernick.

Smith is not happy about it.

"You state your case with your play. I feel like I’ve done that. I feel like the only thing I did to lose my job was get a concussion."

That’s what happened to Smith three games ago against the St. Louis Rams. Kaepernick went in and did OK. But in the next two games while Smith recovered, Kaepernick was dynamite, displaying a downfield passing aggressiveness and confidence that some say Smith has always lacked.

Harbaugh announced Wednesday that Kaepernick will start over a fully recovered Smith.

Many are speculating that Smith’s benching as a result of quickly and honestly disclosing his concussion-type symptoms to team trainers and doctors might now dissuade other NFLers from doing likewise.

Does Smith agree?

"I don’t know," he said. "That’s a good question. I’m not sure."

SAINTS GET EGGS-TREMELY RUDE WELCOME

As if New Orleans Saints players needed any egging on to get nasty before a big game.

Just after the team’s arrival Wednesday night at Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta before their game Thursday night against the Falcons, airport workers threw eggs at the team’s bus.

"There should be a civic award for throwing produce of any sort at the Saints," a Falcons fan told the Journal-Constitution. "In a perfect world, they’d be paid a $5,000 bounty for it. The Saints would understand."

Now that’s an eggs-treme reaction.

BREES CALLS NFL’S BOUNTY PROBE A ‘SHAM’

The NFL’s bounty investigation against the New Orleans Saints was a "kind of a sham from the start," Drew Brees charged Thursday.

The Saints quarterback told Michael Irvin of NFL Network that the resultant suspensions of head coach Sean Payton, GM Mickey Loomis, assistant head coach Joe Vitt and four players from the 2010 Saints team "just brought us together, because I think we’re at a stage now where the public, the fan base, everyone, I think, sees the truth in this.

"This process was kind of a sham from the start. We’re being accused of things based on rhetoric, and based on the testimony of some very unreliable people, as opposed to real evidence and real facts."

On that point, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue by coincidence held his first hearing Thursday in Washington, D.C., on the appeal by the suspended players.

Laywers for the league and the players’ union were present when one of the NFL’s key witnesses, former Saints assistant coach Mike Cerullo, spoke.

The parties declined comment afterward.

On Friday, former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will speak. Upon being suspended indefinitely by commissioner Roger Goodell, Williams fessed up about his role in helping to run the bounty program, in which the NFL charges the Saints offered cash bounties to its defenders to injure key players on opposing teams in playoff games.

Of the four players suspended, the two who remain on the Saints — linebacker Jonathan Vilma and defensive end Will Smith — are expected to attend Friday’s hearing.

CAN BIG BEN ZIP THE BALL?

If he can zip it, Big Ben can do it.

That is, play Sunday afternoon in Baltimore.

Ben Roethlisberger practised with his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates for the second consecutive day Thurdsay, as he recovers from throwing-shoulder and rib injuries.

He told NFL.com’s Aditi Kinkhabwala that there is no longer a concern his broken rib might hit his aorta, and that his availability Sunday hinges on his arm strength.

"I can play through a lot of pain," Roethlisberger said. "(But) can I make the long throw? Can I put a lot of zip on the ball, throw it really hard before people like Ed Reed and defenders can get to the ball? Because if I can’t, then I’m not putting this team in the best situation to win games.

"There’s always a chance," he said.

Infer what you will.

EXTRA POINTS

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick did not pass his latest concussion test and did not practise Thursday. He appears unlikely to play Sunday night in Dallas. Nick Foles would start again "¦ Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray practised Thursday, albeit on a limited basis, raising hopes he might play for the first time in seven weeks after spraining a foot. His backup, Felix Jones, also practised "¦ It’s not looking promising that Minnesota wideout Percy Harvin will finally return from a sprained ankle at Green Bay. He barely did a thing at Thursday’s practice "¦ The "Honey Badger" — former LSU cornerback extraordinaire Tyrann Mathieu — announced his intention to enter the 2013 NFL draft. He was booted off the Tigers team in the summer for failing a drug test, and since then reportedly entered rehab, re-enrolled at LSU and was arrested for pot possession.

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